The warning Christ gives us regarding salt is to make sure we don't lose our flavor, that we don't become tasteless. He said nothing about being in or out of the shaker. Saltiness is not a function of how salt is used; it's a measure of what salt is.

If salt has become as tasteless as sand, you can mix it with other things as much as you like and it will neither flavor nor preserve.

A better case could be made from the verses following: "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify you Father who is in heaven". But "a city on a hill" and "a lamp on a stand" don't have quite the connotations of salt being mixed in.

It's my opinion that we aren't functioning as a preservative because we're tasteless, not because we're "still in the shaker". Our light is not visible, not because it's hidden under a basket, but because it's might near gone out.

I think the audience of Jesus' day would have little use for the salt analogy without consideration of how salt was used in that culture -- to add flavor and to preserve. It makes little sense to think that Jesus did not have the effect "saltiness" would have on the world in mind (especially since he references "the earth"). His entire ministry and teachings revolve around intentionality, missional focus, and community.
In that context, I think it is entirely proper to think of what salt must do.

But of course I cannot and will not deny the importance of personal holiness. I just think this is not the key issue involved in the salt analogy.

Sacrifices were also salted before being burned, although that is rarely mentioned when this passage is referenced.

The New Testament is almost entirely devoid of any warnings against "holy huddles", and Christ said absolutely nothing about what salt must do. Those are strictly inferences; less charitably, it's eisegesis. I suspect if this were a real issue the church would face, it would be addressed more thoroughly. Almost all the attention, rather, is given to personal holiness. And I believe in that vein, this is what Christ was teaching through "salt". This is also the view shared by most classic commentaries I've checked - that "being salty" had to do with maintaining inner qualities rather than serving some function.

I suspect that the issue wasn't addressed more thoroughly because the Church culture than was not as subcultural as it is now.

Christ said absolutely nothing about what salt must do.

But He did say a lot about what His followers should do. It's not eisegesis to apply the calls to personal holiness to the application of that holiness to how we interact with the world. The "mind our own business" holiness you appear to be advocating is not only an inference, it's an invention.

Robert,

Yes, when salt does its work, there is always the risk of losing saltiness. But the risk must be taken. The salt must be "of the earth", not off somewhere on a cloud, staying "pure" but doing nothing useful.

Jared,

It's not eisegesis to apply the calls to personal holiness to the application of that holiness to how we interact with the world. The "mind our own business" holiness you appear to be advocating is not only an inference, it's an invention.

Thanks for saying what I was thinking better than I could. If we are afraid to interact with the world, lest we be tainted, do we really have room to complain when our culture turns into a toilet?

when salt does its work, there is always the risk of losing saltiness

I disagree wholeheartedly, if the salt is doing what it should. Salt does not become less flavorful by virtue of being put on food.

There are many Biblical warnings about particular types of associations with the ungodly, which is why Christ told us to be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves" when He sent us out. But complete disassociation from the ungodly is neither possible nor desirable, and I do not advocate it. "Mind you own business holiness" and "incidental evangelism" are not fair representations of what I believe.

I just want to re-iterate what I actually said: I think the reason we are not flavoring and preserving the world is that we are as salty as sand. I think the problem is with our lack of personal holiness, not our level of involvement in the world.

Robert, I understand that your concern is about personal holiness. And I understand that that is how you are interpreting Jesus' words here.
But here and in past convos you have made direct connections between the lack of personal holiness and involvement with the world. You can call that misconstruing or whatever (as you have on your site), but if that is not what you mean, you have done a poor job of communicating it.
In the long debate in the Thinklings's Corrupt Christian Music thread and in a few places on your site, you repeatedly -- apparently -- make the case that engaging the culture, "hanging out" with sinners, etc is either unbiblical or extrabiblical and that it is an indicator of relative "unsaltiness."

I'm just going by what you say.

I'm not going to take up any more room on Susan's comment thread to fight with you about this.

I just want to reassert that I do not believe that intentionally and Biblically engaging the world threatens to "taint" us. I also think the real problem is that our lives do not portray Christ, rather than that we lack Biblical, intentional involvement in the world. That could be a problem, but I don't think it is our problem.

I do not believe that intentionally and Biblically engaging the world threatens to "taint" us.

We probably differ on what qualifies as "biblically" engaging the world, but that's neither here nor there.
I don't want to fight either, so I will just take the above statement at your word. If I should ever find something else you've written that appears to contradict or mitigate it, I promise to give you the benefit of the doubt.

Blessings.